July 22, 2014 to
July 25, 2014
Obviously, the
plan I made is more like something that will be carried out for the better part
of this coming year.
Books I have been
reading – in addition to ones already referred to:
The Book Lover’s
Companion
Smart Thinking
Deep Nutrition
Coach Yourself to
a New Career
Healthy Digestion
the Natural Way
The Good Gut Guide
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Willpower, the
Owner’s Manual
Finding the
Motivation to Lose Weight
Awaken Your
Strongest Self
Plus, there are
easily half a dozen others I’d like to jump into, but I’ll get some of these
done before doing so
From the book
lover’s companion, I’d like to list some books that look like definite buys,
avoids, and hurry-up-and-reads (meaning I already have them), based on the
descriptions in there. That book is more than just a list, and more than just a
compilation of plot summaries. It also gives discussion questions for book
clubs, reader’s opinions of the books (sometimes) and valuable background info
on the books, as well as suggested companion books that are written in a
similar vein. There are also some “top ten” lists, however, since the book had
a “rule” of not letting a book appear twice, some of these top ten lists are
less than inadequate.
Hurry Up and Read
Things Fall Apart
(148 pages, published 1958) – Chinua Achebe; the father of African lit speaks on colonialism
Companion
books – A Grain of Wheat, The Tin Drum, Baudolino
The Handmaid’s
Tale (324 pages, published 1985) – Margaret Atwood; Biblically tilted future
dystopia
Companion
books – 1984, Brave New World
Heart of Darkness
(112 pages, published 1902) – Joseph Conrad; read to better understand Apocalypse Now Companion books – Things Fall Apart, Lord of the
Flies, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Waste Land
Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin (435 pages, published 1994) – themes of embracing change, meaning of love
Companion
books – The Hundred Secret Senses, The House of the Spirits,
Birdsong
The Great Gatsby
(188 pages, published 1926) – F. Scott Fitzgerald; themes: friendship, love, & loyalty
Companion
books – Tender is the Night, Vile Bodies, Twilight Sleep
A Room with a View
(256 pages, published 1908) – E.M. Forster; themes: coming of age, importance
of love
Companion
books – Rebecca, I Capture the Castle, Miss Garnet’s Angel, Mansfield Park
Get A.S.A.P.
Brick Lane (492
pages, published 2003) – Monica Ali; themes of culture shock, identity
formation, family roles
Companion
books – Straightening Ali, The Buddha of Suburbia, Small Island
Light a Penny
Candle (600 pages, published 1982) – Maeve Binchy; about friendship,
loneliness, and honesty
Companion
books – Sense and Sensibility, On Chesil Beach, The Pact
Any Human Heart
(504 pages, published 2002) – William Boyd; a riveting diary of a 20th
cent. British teacher.
Companion
books – My Century, Oracle Night
Oscar and Lucinda
(519 pages, published 1988) – Peter Carey; inheritance, morality, gambling
Companion
books – Middlesex, Father and Son, Great Expectations (I have it)
The Inheritance of
Loss (324 pages, published 2006) – Kiran Desai; themes of identity & racism
in India
Companion books – Dr.
Zhivago, Rebecca, Beloved, Brideshead
Room (321 pages,
published 2010) – Emma Donoghue; themes: personal freedom, parental love,
resilience
Companion books – Curious Incident, We
Need to Talk About Kevin, Into the Darkest Corner
House of Sand and
Fog (365 pages, published 1999) – Andre Dubus III; themes: addiction, freedom
Companion books – Cathedral,
The Namesake, Black Cherry Blues
Rebecca (448
pages, published 1938) – Daphne Du Maurier; themes: loss of love;
finding & asserting identity
Companion books – Desperate
Remedies, Uncle Silas, Jane Eyre
A Spell of Winter
(313 pages, published 1995) – Helen Dunmore; coming of age leading to
forbidden love
Companion books – Shadow
Baby, The Cement Garden, Jane Eyre, Hatter’s Castle
Birdsong (503
pages, published 1993) – Sebastian Faulks; themes: love and loss during wartime
(WWI)
Companion books –
Regeneration, All Quiet on the Western Front, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Jarhead
Not My Cup of Tea
Behind the Scenes
at the Museum (382 pages, published 1995) – Kate Atkinson
Reasons to avoid – too many
characters, many lengthy footnotes – author’s first book
The Wasp Factory
(184 pages, published 1984) – Iain Banks
Reasons to avoid – it obviously
portrays a crazy person doing sadistic stuff – again, author’s first novel
A Clockwork Orange
(149 pages, published 1962) – Anthony Burgess
Reasons to avoid – has made-up language & nonsensical slang existing nowhere else; very violent
Jonathan Strange
& Mr. Norrell – (1024 pages, published 2004) Susanna Clarke
Reasons to avoid – more British magic, but not Harry Potteresque. Too long; just not into it.
The Alchemist (192 pages, published 1988) – Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist (192 pages, published 1988) – Paulo Coelho
Reasons to avoid – reader: “…I found the book too
sentimental for my taste, repetitive, and as subtle as a sledgehammer.” Also,
have a look at the companion books: Animal Farm, The Little Prince, Jonathan
Livingston Seagull, and Siddhartha. I rest my case.
The Passage (963
pages, published 2010) – Justin Cronin
Reasons to avoid – Another
long vampire story. Getting tired of them, except for the original Dracula!
The Corrections (568
pages, published 2001) – Jonathan Franzen
Reasons to avoid – Language is really
dense! Characters are unlikable. Meh!
Top Ten British
and American Classics
(man, couldn’t they have made two lists here?)
Pride and
Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Adventures of
Augie March – Saul Bellow
Wuthering Heights
– Emily Bronte
Great Expectations
– Charles Dickens
Tess of the
D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
A Thousand Acres –
Jane Smiley
The Grapes of
Wrath – John Steinbeck
Walden – Henry
David Thoreau
The Age of Innocence
– Edith Wharton
Top Ten World
Classics
The House of the
Spirits – Isabel Allende
The Master and
Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
The Outsider –
Albert Camus
Cheri – Colette
The Leopard –
Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa
Crime and
Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Madame Bovary –
Gustave Flaubert
Miss Smilla’s
Feeling for Snow – Peter Hoeg
Measuring The
World – Daniel Kehlmann
My Name Is Red –
Orhan Pamuk
Top Ten Quick
Reads
Untouchable – Mulk
Raj Anand
An Awfully Big
Adventure – Beryl Bainbridge
A Month in the
Country J.L. Carr
The God Boy – Ian
Cross
The Barrytown
Trilogy – Roddy Doyle
Metamorphosis –
Franz Kafka
Moon Tiger –
Penelope Lively
Bonjour Tristesse
– Francoise Sagan
The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Top Ten
Challenging Reads
Possession – A.S.
Byatt
The Name of the
Rose – Umberto Eco
Ulysses – James
Joyce
The Poisonwood
Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The Unbearable
Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Dr. Zhivago –
Boris Pasternak
How the Dead Live
– Will Self
A Suitable Boy –
Vikram Seth
Anna Karenina –
Leo Tolstoy
Germinal – Emile
Zola
Rob’s Turbo
Challenging Reads in English
The Faerie Queen –
Edmund Spenser
The Canterbury
Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
Paradise Lost –
John Milton
Utopia – Thomas
More
Finnegan’s Wake –
James Joyce (read A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, and then Ulysses,
instead)
Atlas Shrugged –
Ayn Rand (read We the Living instead)
The Sound and the
Fury – William Faulkner (read Light in August instead)
Herzog – Saul
Bellow (read Henderson the Rain King instead)
Moby Dick – Herman
Melville
The Silmarillion –
J.R.R. Tolkien (read The Hobbit instead)
This list gives
reasons why each book is hard, along with a good excerpt and a pic
showing the book’s cover:
6 of my 10 books
show up on the list of 25, and two of the authors on my list show up on the longer list:
Finnegan’s Wake
& Ulysses – James Joyce
The Sound and the
Fury & Absalom Absalom – William Faulkner
And a few other
noteworthy books, such as
To the Lighthouse
– Virginia Woolf
Magic Mountain –
Thomas Mann
The Castle – Franz
Kafka
One Hundred Years
of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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